In The Tigers' Den
by Dragon'sHost
Summary: The guild now disbanded, and her teammates scattered to the four winds, Lucy found herself facing a choice.


I've wanted to do this fic for a while, hahaha. I'm really excited to finally get the chance to write it. Don't worry, I promise I'm still working on other fic updates as well. But I was ready for this one to be written.

The endgame pairing is undecided.

I hope you enjoy this one.

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**Decisions To Make And Paths To Take**

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The guild now disbanded, and her teammates scattered to the four winds, Lucy found herself facing a choice.

Or rather, she found herself facing a great many choices – and unable to decide upon a single one.

In her defense, this was all very sudden. The last time the world had felt so open, so alien, was when she had first run away from home. But whereas that time, that openness, had felt full of hope and possibility, now the vastness spread out before Lucy felt only… empty, and tinged with despair.

Instead of casting aside her place as she once had, now she was the one cast aside. She'd pleaded with Makarov, when she found out that he was disbanding the guild. Begged him not to, to appoint another guild master in his place instead. And she hadn't been the only one, at that. There had been impassioned pleas from all sides, but in the end it wasn't enough to keep everything and everyone together.

They'd all been hurt too badly by the battles with Tartaros to try to give it a go by themselves. Gray and Juvia had vanished almost the instant the announcement was made. Erza had argued, but ultimately she left in short order as well with a glimmer in her eye and determination in her footsteps. It had been Laxus that had been most adamant about the guild staying together, otherwise what would have been the point of calling themselves a family in the first place? In the end, he had turned away, his shoulders hunched in fury and sadness, his concerned friends following close in his wake.

When approached about it, Mirajane had refused to take up the mantle of guild master in Makarov's place to hold the guild together. She had nearly lost both of her siblings at the hands of Tartaros, and with having lost Lisanna once before, Mirajane stood firm in her decision that she needed to be as much with her siblings as possible. Something she couldn't do if she had the guild to look after as well. Not a single person begrudged her decision.

Cana refused to even entertain the notion of her as a guild master, despite how close she'd come to S-Class promotion.

With Gildarts nowhere to be found, that left only one potential candidate for guild master: Macao. Who insisted that he had already put in his time as guild master, and much like Mirajane he wished to spend more time with his son while he had the chance.

And that was it.

Lucy bade her friends farewell as they left along their new paths. Levy followed Gajeel, and Wendy departed for Lamia Scale at Chelia's invitation. Then Mirajane and her siblings headed out, and then the Connell family did as well. Laki and Kinana, Max and Warren. Cana, Macao, and Wakaba. Jet and Droy. Mickey and her team.

Until it was just Lucy left behind.

For some reason, she hadn't been able to bring herself to wander the same paths that the others had taken. None of them had felt… right.

It wasn't as if those directions were closed off to her, though. She was sure that any one of them might have welcomed her. But deep in Lucy's heart, she wondered if she was an imposition to them. On jobs, she spent more time getting kidnapped than in helping out with the fighting. Her teammates overshadowed her own accomplishments thoroughly. She'd just be a bother to the other guild members.

So here she was, frozen by her indecision. Where to go? What to do?

Regardless of her choice, Fairy Tail was no more, and Lucy grieved that fact.

Thinking over it logically, Lucy contemplated her options, and the pros and cons of each.

Did she want to continue to practice magic? Did she still want to be a mage?

Lucy had to say that yes, she very much still wanted that, even with the inherent danger of the profession. Very few mages lived to old age, but magic was in her blood, embedded in her soul. Asking her to go without it was akin to asking a fish to forsake water. And after losing so many friends already, Lucy was loathe to willingly give up her spirits.

Although the way Natsu had left cut her deeply, Lucy had to acknowledge the validity of his choice to train. Bad things wouldn't stop occurring in the world in the absence of Fairy Tail. Perhaps it was time she focused on her own training as well. She would not dwell in her teammates' shadows ever again if she could help it.

But how to go about the training? Lucy instantly rejected the notion of going off into the wilderness somewhere to hone her skills. Even if she enjoying roughing it – and she very much did not – there was the issue of her possessions still in her apartment that she wanted to keep. Storage meant money, but that meant getting a job.

A mundane job would eat into her time to work on her magic, but would provide a stable income and schedule. Two things that Lucy desperately needed in her life.

Becoming a Rune Knight now was perhaps the best time to – Lucy knew that she more than had the strength to make a name for herself there. With the potential for advancement so high, it might be the best choice… Then again, Lucy wasn't sure she wanted the authoritarian constructs that came with military life. She'd had quite enough of that from living with her father.

Joining another guild would be best for magical improvement, but mage jobs were dangerous and… it would inevitably mean divesting herself of her Fairy Tail guild emblem.

Lucy looked down at the mark on her hand. She didn't want to get rid of it, not ever. It was a symbol of the family she'd chosen for herself. The people she'd cared about more than anything else in the world. Disposing of it – as ludicrous as she knew the notion was – would be like she was throwing away Fairy Tail itself, all of her memories of it, and the hope of it one day reforming.

But then she looked past her hand, to the pouch on her belt and the whip that rested beside it.

She still had friends, didn't she? Ones that had risked so much to save her, and to save Fairy Tail. Lucy owed everything to them. They were what had made joining Fairy Tail possible in the first place.

What would be the best choice for them…?

Suddenly, the path through her future was clear.

Lucy knew where she needed to go. What she needed to do. And although it would hurt, and immensely so at that, it still felt more right than anything else.

The next day after making her decision, Lucy hopped on the earliest train she could headed out of Magnolia.

Lucy would join Yukino, her fellow celestial mage and dear friend.

Lucy would join Sabertooth.


End file.
